Kael'Zar was chained in the center of hell's coliseum.
Naked. Bleeding. Broken.
Tens of thousands of demons filled the stands—screaming, cheering, throwing weapons and bones into the pit. Above him, the demon kings sat on thrones made of skulls.
He had once called them brothers.
Now, they spit on his name.
"You betrayed us," one of them hissed. "You protected humans. You showed mercy. You became filth."
Kael'Zar raised his head—barely.
One eye swollen shut. His lips cracked. His body torn open. But his stare? Still burning.
"I showed honor," he rasped.
They laughed. All of them. Mad, howling laughter that shook the arena.
Then came Vazeth, the King of Kings.
He walked forward, dragging something in his claws.
A skull—small, cracked, blood still fresh.
His son's.
Kael'Zar didn't speak. His body shook. His fists clenched.
Then Vazeth threw down a severed hand—his mate's—still wearing the ring Kael'Zar had carved from his own horn.
"I made her scream your name," Vazeth whispered. "She died crying."
The crowd howled.
Kael'Zar didn't scream.
Didn't cry.
He just stared—broken, bleeding, burning from the inside.
They killed his son.
Tore his wife to pieces.
Laughed while he watched—chained in the center of hell's coliseum.
Vazeth, the King of Kings, dropped his son's crushed skull at his feet.
Then his wife's severed hand—still wearing the ring Kael'Zar carved from his own horn.
"She died screaming for you," Vazeth sneered.
Kael'Zar's voice came low, ragged, like fire clawing through his throat:
"You said mercy is weakness..."
"Then let this be your curse—
That I ever gave it to you."
He lifted his head. One eye swollen shut. Blood pouring from his mouth.
"If death is all that waits… I'll go dragging your names with me into the void."
"Not forgiven. Not forgotten. But carved into the screams that follow."
"May every shadow whisper what I couldn't finish."
His chains burned red-hot. His flesh peeled.
And still—he laughed.
Not because he won.
Because he knew what he became in that moment—
Something worse than death.
Then came silence.
Then came darkness.
And hell thought it was over.
But the universe had other plans...